


Release my Neck (If you Can)

by Anonymous



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Caves, Child Abuse, Claustrophobia, Gen, Hurt Zuko (Avatar), Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Ozai (Avatar) Being a Terrible Parent, Ozai (Avatar) is an Asshole, Pre-Slash, Protective Sokka (Avatar), Trauma, Zuko (Avatar) Needs Therapy, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, i guess?, idk I'd make this zukka but I don't know what the fuck a romance is, so you get physically affectionate ambiguous zukka
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:47:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27952562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: "He locked me in a tunnel with a door that could only be opened by fire bending. I thought I was going to die." Sokka's breath hitched, and he squeezed Zuko's hand, for lack of anything better to say. Sometimes, there really weren't any words.orA continuation (of sorts) of redrobin1989's Hide and Seek. Trauma like that doesn't leave you very easily.
Relationships: Sokka & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 181
Collections: Anonymous





	Release my Neck (If you Can)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Hide & Seek](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10546556) by [redrobin1989](https://archiveofourown.org/users/redrobin1989/pseuds/redrobin1989). 



> so I read redrobin1989's amazing fic and I couldn't stop thinking about how zuko would fare afterwards, and so this fic was born. redrobin1989, if you want me to take it down, please tell me! I don't wanna step on anyone's toes 😔 that being said, enjoy 🥺

“Dammit!” He swore as the rabbit-pheasant hopped away, its stupid little feathery nose twitching. Mocking him. 

“Maybe you’ll be able to catch it if you don’t swear everytime it moves." Zuko, who was busy being a useless lump, dryly remarked.

“Shut up! I don’t see you helping!”

“What’s the point? We already have enough food, we’re just risking being seen this far away from the beach house.”

“This isn’t because we _need_ the food, this is a manly bonding activity. Besides, everyone needs to know how to hunt, it's a basic life skill!”

“We’ve been chasing the same rabbit-pheasant for hours.” 

“They’re a lot faster than rabbit-penguins,” he muttered, eyes tracking the pheasant-rabbit’s every move. It was in a tree now, and it looked like it was thinking about flying down. He slowly raised his boomerang, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. There.

As quietly as he could, he tossed Boomerang, intending for it to hit the rabbit-pheasant and stun it. Maybe even knock it out for long enough for them to retrieve it. 

Boomerang cut the branch the rabbit-pheasant was sitting on instead.

“Shit!” He launched himself out of the bush he was hiding in, knocking Zuko over in his fervor, but it was too late, the rabbit-pheasant was flying away. “Get back here!” He cried, “You look so tasty!” It didn’t listen, landing on the ground and hopping into a nearby cave. 

He cursed, making to follow it, but Zuko grabbed his arm. “Uh." Sokka blinked at Zuko, who suddenly looked unsure, his hand squeezing Sokka’s arm anxiously. “Why don’t we just let it go? We’ve been gone for so long the others will want us back by now. We don’t need to catch it.”

“No." Sokka shook his head. “This isn’t a matter of food or manly bonding time anymore. This is a matter of honour. Look at it, Zuko! Look at its dead eyes. It's mocking us.”

“It just looks like it’s tired. We’ve been chasing it for a while.”

“Which means that we’ll be able to catch it soon." It was a well known fact of hunting. When all else failed, follow your prey until it was too tired to run anymore. “Come on, we’ll try and corner it in the cave, and if we fail, then we can head back, okay?”

Zuko stared at the cave apprehensively. “Fine." He muttered, trailing behind as Sokka walked into the cave. He lingered outside the entrance watching Sokka as he and his future meal sized each other up. The rabbit-pheasant stared at him like it never had a thought in its life.

He stalked it for a few steps, and groaned when it scuttled off. “Come on, Zuko, we’ll never catch this thing if you’re too scared of the dark to come inside.”

“I'm not!” Zuko snapped, finally stepping inside and walking up to Sokka. “I was just–” whatever Zuko was going to say was lost as the ground suddenly lurched, forcing them to fall flat on their faces. He slammed his hands on the ground, eyes wide as the earth shook as if it had decided it wanted a go at being water. He clinged onto Zuko, desperately trying to stabilize himself.

It felt like a million years later, and a minute all in one, when the ground slowly stopped shaking. 

He panted, unfortunately sucking the dust in the air into his mouth. While he choked, a soft light appeared next to him, and Sokka blinked at it. He hadn’t realised just how dark it had gotten. 

“Fuck." Zuko eloquently stated from somewhere behind him, and Sokka turned around to find that their exit was almost completely blocked off with boulders. 

“No! No!” He screamed, running over to the pile of rocks and slamming his fists against it, wishing with all his heart to be an earth bender _just this one time, spirits please._ “I can’t believe this, the spirits are mocking me! What did I ever do to them!? Hey, spirits!” He called out into the cave, his voice echoing all around them. “I'll do whatever stupid task you want me to do, just get us out of here!”

“Uh." Zuko’s voice drew him out of his spirit-induced suffering. “You think the spirits are mocking you?”

“Yeah." He sighed. “Something like this has happened to us before. Except there was this weird nomad group that was with us. They were _incredibly_ stupid." Two Lovers was _still_ stuck in his head. Jerks.

“Oh." Zuko said, and nothing more. Sokka turned to look at him, taking him in for the first time since the earthquake had hit. Zuko was illuminated by the fire he had summoned, and he was covered by a thin layer of dust, much like he was himself. One thing that _wasn’t_ like himself was the fact that Zuko looked about two seconds from freaking out. Sokka, while furious at the world and the spirits for doing this to him, wasn’t actually that concerned. They’d find their way out, like they always did, and if the worst came to the worst, Toph would find them eventually. 

“Uh. You okay, buddy?” This seemed to startle Zuko out of whatever thoughts that were running through his head, which, if he learnt anything about Zuko in the past month, weren’t anything good.

“Yeah. I'm fine. Let’s get out of here.” 

“I hate to break it to you, but the entrance kinda collapsed.”

“I know that!” Zuko snapped, the flame in his hand flaring, and Sokka lifted his hands in front of him, raising his eyebrows.

“Whoa, okay! Sorry, I was just trying to lighten the mood. I'm sure there’s a way out, this is a pretty deep cave.”

“Yeah." Zuko bit out, and walked away, and _wow_ he really must not be in a good mood. Usually when Zuko had outbursts like this he’d awkwardly apologise afterwards, probably a part of his whole ‘learning to be good’ thing. 

“Hey! Wait up!” He called out, jerking up to follow. Zuko didn’t slow down, but it was easy enough to catch up at the pace he was going at.

They walked in silence for a few minutes. It was incredibly awkward. Sokka generally didn’t like silences, ~~silence like the first few minutes after Yue had died–~~ but Zuko somehow made it more awkward than it usually was. He just had that talent. 

Sensing that Zuko wouldn’t appreciate any attempts at talking, he whistled, swung his arms, and even stopped to stretch his legs at one point, and Zuko didn’t even notice, relentlessly pressing forwards. 

Eventually, he just couldn’t take it anymore. “So…” He searched for a topic, a common topic, something they could both relate to. “This cave is really big, huh?”

“Mm." Zuko hummed.

“I wonder how far back it goes. Hey, if we find the exit soon, we should explore all the way to the end! Maybe we’ll find some missing treasure–”

“I don’t want to find any treasure! I just want to get out. Where do you think an exit could be?”

“No idea." He answered honestly, and concern churned in his gut when Zuko's breathing hitched, the fire in his palm flickering dangerously. “Hey, it’ll be okay even if there isn’t an exit. The others will notice we’re gone eventually, and Toph will find us, easy.”

“We– _can’t_ stay here that long. There’s an exit, there always is.”

Sokka swallowed, taking in Zuko a bit more. He was on his non-scarred side, and so he could very easily see how wide Zuko’s eyes were, the trembling of his fingers, and the way his other fist clenched up tight in a ball.

“...You know, being claustrophobic is nothing to be ashamed of.”

“What? I'm not! I just want to get out, that’s normal, that doesn’t mean I'm _scared._ ”

“I don’t know, man, I'm pretty fine.”

“That’s different. Basically nothing phases you, you always have a plan.” Well, he _guessed_ Zuko had a point. He was pretty badass and awesome to be phased, and when you spend a year with the _Avatar_ then there are some things you just have to take as it comes. Zuko rolled his eyes at his preening. “Don’t let that go to your head. Oh." He stopped. “There’s a fork.”

Sokka glanced up to find that there was indeed a fork in the path, the cave splitting off into two directions. “Wow. I really didn’t think that a cave that looked so small on the outside would be so _deep_." Zuko growled and stalked up to the split, glancing between them angrily. 

“Which way do we go!?”

“Flip a coin?”

“That won’t help us! There must be some sort of clue, something that will tell us where the exit is!” Zuko snapped his head over to look at him expectantly, and all Sokka could do was helplessly lift his hands.

“Hey, I know just as much as you do. Choosing randomly is all we can do. We can always backtrack if we hit a dead end.”

“How did you get out last time? With the singing nomads?”

“We came across some helpful badgermoles.”

Zuko shook his head. “This cave isn’t big enough for badgermoles…” He mumbled, as if he was actually considering it as an escape route. 

“Hey." He stepped closer, putting his hand on Zuko's shoulder, who stiffened, but didn’t shrug him off. “It’s gonna be fine, I promise. When have I ever lied to you?”

“Lots of times." Zuko muttered. “I still haven’t forgotten about the bullfrog incident.”

“Okay, when have I ever lied to you when it _mattered?”_

“...Never.”

“So you can trust me when I say that it’s gonna be okay. We’re gonna get out, and we’re gonna eat dinner and brag about how cool and badass we are. The others are gonna be _so_ jealous. _”_

“Okay." Zuko answered, his voice sounding small enough that it pulled on his heartstrings. He’d never ever thought that he’d ever see Zuko so small and _vulnerable._ It felt wrong, almost. Like he wasn’t supposed to see him like this, like he was anything other than the standoffish firebender serving as the Avatar’s master. 

Well, fuck that, Sokka forced the feeling away. Zuko was their _friend_ now, and that meant being there for him no matter how strange he was acting. 

“Which way do you wanna go? coin toss?” 

“No. Let’s just– let’s just go this way." Zuko bit out, heading towards the right fork, and Sokka followed, happy enough with that.. They walked in silence once more, but this time the only sound was their footsteps and Zuko’s increasingly shaky breaths. His flame was growing smaller and smaller, flickering wildly. 

“Hey, buddy? Could you make the fire a little bigger? This low light’s hurting my eyes." In the dim light, Sokka could see Zuko’s mouth open, but before he could say anything the ground lurched, a horrible crashing noise sounding all around them.

“Shit!” Sokka swore, blindly grabbing for Zuko, the light finally going out. They lay on the ground, curled up until the shaking finally stopped after what felt like a million years. “Shit." He muttered again, struggling not to sneeze or cough from all the dust in the air. “Are you okay?”

“It’s–” Zuko’s voice was suddenly a lot more tense and high strung than it was before. “It’s dark.”

“Yeah, it is. So why don’t you, you know, make a light?”

“I– I,” he heard rustling, felt Zuko curling up in himself even more. “I need to stand up. I can’t breathe like this." He gasped out, uncurling to stumble upwards to stand. Sokka made to follow him before a low _thunk_ echoed through the cave, and Zuko’s cursing. 

“Zuko?” 

“I can’t stand up. The cave’s too small, I can't stand up." Zuko gasped, and Sokka took a deep breath, attempting to dispel the panic trying to claw its way in. Luckily the dust had settled pretty quickly. 

“Fuck. Okay. So we’re trapped in an even smaller part of the cave. This is fine!”

“This is not fine!”

“Can’t you let me be in denial?! Okay, okay, okay, it’s not that bad. We should probably stop moving. We’ll just have to wait for the others to notice that we’re gone.” A high pitched keening rang through the air and it took Sokka a second to pinpoint the source back to Zuko, who was curled up smaller than he needed to be, eyes wide. 

“...Zuko? Are you okay?”

“No! No, I'm not okay! We’re trapped and no one’s gonna find us, and we’re gonna starve to death! No, no, no, not again no–”

“Hey, hey, hey it’s fine! Are you really doubting Toph’s earthbending skills?” A pause, a gasp of air, then a headshake. “Exactly. We just have to wait until Toph finds us, which will probably be soon. Aang would notice a missing firebender master in no time.” But not him, he somewhat bitterly thought, remembering the foo foo cuddly poops mishap. Sure, they had found him eventually, but only by accident. Who cared if goofy Sokka was gone for hours, he was probably hunting or something, nothing to worry about!

Stop. He… really should stop thinking like that. He was actually getting pretty good at it lately, brushing off his bad thoughts about himself, but the stress of the situation must be getting to him. 

“I can’t– I can't just _wait." Z_ uko gasped, “I can’t _breathe_ in here." Sokka blinked. The air was perfectly fresh here, not stale at all. Shit, Zuko must be far more scared than he was letting on if his panic was enough to override the years he’d spent training his breath for his jerkbending. 

“Hey, buddy, can you do me a favour?” He didn’t lean forwards, or try to be closer to Zuko in any way. Something told him that crowding Zuko wouldn’t help at all. “Can you breathe for me? Not the fancy breaths you and Aang do when you’re jerkbending, just… y'know, normal breathing would be nice.”

“It doesn’t matter, we’ll run out of air.”

“No we won’t, trust me, there’s enough air in here to last us weeks.”

“We’ll die of thirst before then!” 

“No, we won’t! Zuko, please, just… try and breathe, okay? I'm here." Zuko’s unsteady breathing continued for a few minutes, long enough that Sokka considered another method to get Zuko to calm down, but eventually, he heard shuffling and a cut off attempt to take in a deep breath. “Yeah, that’s good, just keep doing that. You’re doing great." It took several, long painstaking minutes, but eventually, Zuko’s breathing returned somewhat to normal.

Sokka waited until Zuko seemed like he’d calmed down as much as he could calm down while in the position that he was before asking, “are you good now?”

“Y–yeah." Zuko sighed, sounding exhausted and _scared._ Sokka hated it, he hated seeing his friends upset. He was never enough to make it better for them.

“You think you can summon another fire?”

“Yeah." Zuko repeated, doing just that. The small flame made something uncurl in Sokka’s chest, the presence of light making everything feel much more manageable. 

“Okay, okay, we’re fine. Hey, look, there’s even more room over there! Zuko, look, we’ll be able to stand up.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to look anywhere." Zuko muttered, eyes fixed on the floor. Right, wouldn’t wanna trigger another panic attack.

“Okay, well– just follow me." He grabbed Zuko’s shaky and sweaty hand, pulling him out into where the cave walls widened, allowing them to stand up completely. “It’s been a while. We shouldn’t have to wait long until–”

There was a pause, and Zuko squeezed his hand. “Until what?”

“How are you making your fire do that?” Zuko blinked down at his flame, where it was leaning heavily to the left, only staying alight due to Zuko’s influence, he was sure.

“Oh. I'm not doing it, it’s the wind. I could make it bigger, but I–I don't think I can without burning myself. Not right now.”

“Zuko. If there’s wind, then there’s an exit." S _hit._ That explained why the dust settled so quickly earlier. Whatever was letting the air in might even be big enough to squeeze through if the wind reached them all the way down there. Zuko jerked his head up to stare at him with wide eyes.

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” Zuko took the lead, practically pulling his arm out of his socket with the speed he rushed towards the source of the wind, but Sokka couldn’t blame him, he was just as eager to leave the cave, all the fun being sucked out of it quick.

When they finally reached the exit, a hole in the ground a little above their heads, Zuko _laughed,_ actually laughed, a shaky giggle of relief, and it occurred to Sokka that was the first time he’d ever heard him get close to so much as a chuckle. It would be nice to hear Zuko laugh for real one day. 

He wasted no time climbing though it, offering Sokka his hand to help him climb up once he was out. The exit was a tight squeeze but they managed it, both being teenagers with less than great diets finally working to their advantage for once. 

Panting, they both fell into the grass. Sokka had never been so happy to feel the overbearing weight of the fire nation sun before. 

“We’re out." Zuko murmured. 

“Yeah." He breathily replied. “ _Not_ thanks to the spirits." He’d expected something to happen that would break the tense, stunned atmosphere, like both of them breaking into giggles or something, but all Zuko did was sigh, letting his head thump against the ground. 

“That was _horrible_." He muttered, sounding close to tears. 

“Yeah." He swallowed, clenching his fists. Now that Zuko wasn’t on the precipice of a panic attack Sokka could actually process what had happened. What Zuko had said in his panic.

 _“We’re trapped and no one’s gonna find us, and we’re gonna starve to death! No, no, no, not again no–”_

Zuko’s fear seemed to be more than simple claustrophobia. There was some sort of trauma there, something bad that had happened that convinced Zuko to be so scared. 

Judging by how Zuko got his scar, Sokka wasn’t sure if he wanted to find out. 

“...Hey, Zuko?” He asked, reasoning that Zuko would shut him down if he didn’t want to talk about it.

“Yeah?”

“When you were panicking back there, you said some things." Zuko stiffened up next to him, but Sokka couldn’t stop once he’d started. “Had… had something like this happened to you before? Did you get stuck when you were a kid or something?”

“...Yeah. Something like that." There was a pause and Sokka didn’t dare ask for more info. Sure, he was curious, but Sokka didn’t dare pry. Zuko’s life was scary, he had figured out, and he didn’t know what he would find. 

Despite Sokka giving him an out, Zuko took a deep breath, like he’d made his mind up about something. “...When I was a kid, like, seven or something, my father got me and azula to play a game. I think it was something like hide and seek? I don’t know, I don't really remember.”

Sokka remained quiet, his hand sliding out onto the grass next to them, palm up, an offering. Zuko took it, gripping him tightly with shaky fingers. “It doesn’t really matter how. What matters was that I couldn't bend yet, and– and he wanted to fix it. He–”

Zuko squeezed his hand, and Sokka squeezed back, trying to convey every ounce of support and love he could in grip alone. Zuko seemed to get it, or at least was comforted by the pressure, because after a while, he spoke and his voice was calmer, more detached. 

“He locked me in a blocked off tunnel that had a door that could only be opened with firebending. It took me _days_ to figure it out. I thought I was gonna die." He _would’ve_ died, if he had actually ended up being a non bender. He squeezed Zuko’s hand, more for himself than for him. He couldn’t imagine it, having someone who was supposed to love him and keep him safe leave him to die for something completely out of his control. He tried to imagine dad doing anything like that, and his mind instantly shied away from the thought. 

“I'm so sorry." He murmured, wishing that he was eloquent and wise enough to have this conversation. “You… you didn’t deserve that, you know?”

“Yeah, don’t worry, I know." Zuko sighed. “Now." The thought of baby Zuko believing that what his father did to him was justified made his stomach churn, and he wanted nothing but to wrap Zuko up in a hug. He couldn’t. Zuko still stiffened at mere touches on the shoulder, but he could dream. 

There were so many things he could say, _wanted_ to say, that it jumbled in his mind and made it impossible to come out. All he could do was squeeze Zuko’s hand and offer his companionship.

That seemed to be enough, judging by the way Zuko’s eyes slipped close, finally calm enough to let his guard down. Or maybe he just trusted Sokka enough to keep him safe. 

“Hey. We should probably head back. The others are probably losing their shit now.”

“Oh– yeah. Crap, Katara’s probably gonna be pissed at me, isn’t she?”

 _“So_ pissed.”

“Urgh.”

**Author's Note:**

> hey, you got it this far!! I hope it holds a candle to the original work sdfgfdsdsfds I'm actually p proud of this, it's at least better than some of my other works lol
> 
> also fun fact, the working title for this fic is 'zuko and sokka trapped in a cave p-a-n-i-c-k-i-n-g' is is it insensitive? yes. do I wish I made that the title? also yes.


End file.
